also debris from craft production in them. There was also debris from craft production in
the smaller buildings. The plots were c. 6 m wide and there were two or three buildings
on them. In the excavated area there were three different kinds of house foundations: sill
stone, post-hole and twig holes in lines. The buildings were made by the horizontal-
planking technique and wattle and daub, and during the eleventh century the
cross-jointing technique was introduced. King Olof Skötkonung’s minting-house was
found in the excavated area: pieces of lead with the impression of a die were found on the
floor (Ros 1991 , 2001 : 87 ff.). The first Swedish coins were made in Sigtuna: King Olof
Skötkonung started coin production c. 995 and it continued until his death c. 1022. He
invited English moneyers to Sigtuna and five moneyers had their names on coins made
in the town. Olof might have produced as many as two million coins. Olof’s son, Anund
Jakob, continued to make coins from c. 1022 until 1030 / 5 , then there was a long period
without coinage. Production started again in Sigtuna under Knut Eriksson’s reign
1167 – 96 (Malmer 1991 : 13 , 25 ).
THE CHURCHES AND THE EPISCOPAL SEEThe foundation of Sigtuna took place during the pagan period. On the outskirt of the
town there are late Viking Age inhumation burial grounds (Douglas 1978 : 61 f.). There
are also some later burial grounds in the town with no visible marking above ground.
The graves are Christian, oriented east–west. One of these grave-fields, dating to
c. 1000 , has been excavated in the western part of the town (Hillbom 1987 ).
Adam of Bremen mentions that Olof Skötkonung had a bishop among his retainers,
and later, during the 1060 s, there was a missionary bishop named Osmund in Sigtuna.
Adam calls Sigtuna civitas magna Sictone and Sictonia civitate. It became a bishopric
c. 1070 , during Stenkil’s reign, under Bishop Adalvard the younger, but the bishop
abandoned Sigtuna when Stenkil died (Adam of Bremen 2 : 58 , 3 : 15 , 4 : 25 , 28 ff.). In a
letter from the 1080 s the pope expresses his joy that there are preachers among the
Svea people and the king is asked to send a bishop or priest to Rome (DS 24 ). It is not
known which was the episcopal church in Sigtuna.
In Sigtuna there are churches dedicated to St Per, St Nikolai, St Lars, St Olov, St
Gertrud and the Virgin Mary, which belonged to the Dominican monastery. There was
also a hospital of St George with a chapel. Archaeological investigations have revealed
another two churchyards. Most of the churches are in an east–west sequence north of the
settlement area. Only one is located in the settlement area: on the Sigtuna museum plot.
One suggestion is that that church was the bishop’s church (e.g. Tesch 2003 : 9 f.);
however, it is more likely that St Per, situated in the western part of the town, was the
episcopal church. St Per was built c. 1100 (Redelius 1975 ). Earlier there was probably a
wooden church somewhere in the town. St Per might also have been a mother church
with a parish comprising the town and the surrounding area (Ros 2001 : 147 ff.). This is,
however, a hypothetical speculation and the church of St Olov might have been the
episcopal church. The episcopal see was moved from Sigtuna to Old Uppsala in the
1130 s.
–– chapter 8 ( 8 ): Sigtuna––